Kentucky eloquence, past and present; library of orations, after-dinner speeches

Front matter

Class Book:

K4Vi

PAST AND PRESENT

Foreword

With the certainty of financial loss, with sure knowledge of much labor, and the full expectation of some adverse criticism, the preparation of this book was undertaken.. The hope that, as a son of my beloved State, I might add one leaf to her crown of glory is ample compensation for all that is involved in such a task.

Kentucky's sons and daughters have not dared, fought, struggled, toiled, or lived in vain. A distinctive character has been evolved ; a superb model of womanhood and manhood has been created, and the name "Kentuckian" ever carries with it, in all the known world, a peculiarly fascinating and unique distinction. Like the sun, it may here and there have a spot, but these only bring out the effulgence and splendor of the undimmed surface.

Ignoring the unparalleled difficulties, moved by an unmeasurable courage, prompted by a spirit of adventure, and quickened by a love of conquest, the pioneer people of Kentucky marched over the Alleghany mountains into the wonderlands of the most attractive hunting grounds ever discovered by man, and planted themselves, unbidden and unwelcomed, amid the preserves of the savages, who, startled by this unexpected and daring invasion, lost no time in boldly defending this aggression, or punishing this defiance of their hereditary rights.

Hitherto immigration had either crossed the ocean and, with it as a base, spread inland, or, by slow degrees, moved by measured tread and ever-expanding lines into the wilderness or pre-empted lands, forcing back by progressive steps all the hindrances the red man or his God might erect to stay its advance.

In the settlement of Kentucky, a new law of conquest was to be promulgated, and new methods of subjection were to be invoked, and the log cabins and wooden forts of Boonesboro, Harrod's Fort, Louisville, Lexington, Bryant's Station, Shelbyville, Elizabethtown and Ruddle's Mill were to proclaim that the bravest men and women God ever made were to be found in the far distant wilderness, the new Commonwealth called "Kaintuckee." Marching, fighting, settling under new surroundings and in violation of all precedents, it necessarily followed that a new character was to be evolved.

Providence examined its molds. No such individuality had hitherto appeared in the records of the past, and the hour had come when the world needed a new type of men. The Virginia cavalier, with his superb gallantry, ennobled by his lofty, gentlemanly instincts, could not meet the requirements. The Pennsylvania settler, with his indomitable patience

8 FOREWORD,

and unfailing courage, fell short of the demands, and the sturdy Scotch- Irishman of North Carolina, with his unquenchable love of freedom, backed by his superb bravery and uplifted by his abiding faith in God, was not equal to what the time and circumstances exacted of the men who should undertake the seemingly impossible task of expelling the wandering claimants of Kentucky.

These Kentucky pioneers were to conquer a land four hundred miles away from help or succor. It was an untrodden forest, with no roads or paths except such as the buffalo in his migrations had trampled through the canebrake, or beasts of prey had traced in their search for food. It had no permanent human inhabitants, and its defense was by common consent imposed upon the savage red men, who claimed as their lands that vast country which stretches from the great lakes in the Northwest to the waters of the Tennessee, the Cumberland, Ohio and Mississippi rivers, covering an area of over 300,0(X) square miles. No survey had marked its lines; he who traversed the solitude and depths of the forests must rely upon the stars, or Nature's marks upon the trees as his guide. All supplies must be carried on the pack-horses or by men; powder and lead were to be transported over six hundred miles; not a single blade of wheat or stalk of corn as yet had sprung from its virgin and fertile soil. He who entered its domain must always be prepared to meet an alert, savage, brave and merciless foe. The cooing of the babe, the wail of the defenseless women, or the appeal of the helpless prisoner, found no sympathy or response in the foe who defended the land. Death by the tomahawk or at the stake was the punishment the Indian meted out to those who invaded his beloved hunting ground. As he asked and expected no quarter for himself, he gave none to his white foe. By day and by night, -the merciless warfare was waged. The coming of the morning sun only quickened and vitalized anew his barbarous plans, and its departure at night only gave time for more relentless resolves to drive out the intruders.

Here arose conditions where the great law of Nature, the "survival of the fittest," was to find its most difficult application and to meet its most perplexing trial. Pennsylvania, Virginia and North Carolina were all laid under tribute and forth from these three warlike colonies came these new men of the hour. Between these newcomers there was no pre-arrangement. The sublimest courage, completest patience, almost iron hearts and iron bodies were needed in this new experimental station of liberty, and the men and women who responded to the call "over the mountains" were simply heaven's agents sent to win "GOD'S COUNTRY."

Defiant of death, without fear in their hearts, they came as the best the new world could give for the greatest task ever imposed upon a like number of people. "He who, watching over Israel, slumbers not nor sleeps," chose his best agents for this most difficult work ; and, the story of the Kentucky pioneer, radiantly bright, ever' gleaming on the pages of the world's history.

FOBEWORD. 9

tells us that God judged wisely in the men He sent to the canebrakes and forests of the "dark and bloody ground" to carve out a new State, the characteristics of whose people were to touch and stamp a nation's life and to create qualities and furnish examples which, in the conquest of the mighty West, were to exercise an incalculable and perpetual influence. Such people called to such a destiny were bound to create new forms of speech. The extraordinary duties devolving upon these hunting-shirted heroes were to arouse emotions hitherto unknown and, while dealing with problems hitherto unsolved,- were to call for expressions, methods and forms of speech hitherto unspoken and yet unthought.

Under the shade of the mighty forests, alongside streams which, in magnitude and currents, added a new majesty to Nature's works; down by the log fort, consecrated by unsurpassed danger and heroism; by the graves of wives and children, an account of whose tragic and awful sacrifices were carved with the hunting knife in the bark of the friendly monarchs of the wood which stood in memorial of the dust of the beloved dead, Kentucky Eloquence had its birth, and from these sent its echoes into other lands.

Todd, Trigg, Boone, Harrod, McAfee, Blythe, Slaughter, Jouett, Henderson, Floyd were followed by a host of others like Clay, the Breckinridges, Menefee, Grundy, Daviess, Sharp, Allen, Crittenden, Combs, Shelby, Barry, Hardin, Bell, Magoffin, VanWinkle, Preston, Wickliffe, Hanson, Woolley, Letcher, Trabue, Clarke, Marshall, Robertson, Sanders, Davis, Wadsworth, Bright, Johnson, Blair, Corwin, Pope, Woodson and hundreds of others whose glowing and eloquent words have thrilled the souls of thousands of men and left a lasting impress upon the lives of millions of their fellow countrymen. No book of five hundred pages can contain a tithe of what these wonderful orators have said or written.

There will be absent from the pages of this volume names and thoughts for which Kentuckians will naturally look in such a work. Bascom, Kavanaugh, Spalding, J. F. Bell, Hise, Holley, John C. Young, Smith, Houston and many other names will spring instinctively into the mind, and the query will arise. Why were they not included in its pages? The answer is that the indifference of friends upon whom calls were made, the difficulty of finding their written or printed productions and the limited space of one volume, all served to make it impossible to include them.

Some will wonder why other speeches are inserted at all. Every prominent man in Kentucky who has won any fame as a speaker has been asked for a contribution, and many have declared that they were too busy to revise; others failed to forward manuscript, and many have confessed they had no record of their best efforts.

All the money in Kentucky could not buy a page in this book; offer after offer of money for space has been declined. Friendship here and there may have left its mark and secured space for articles of moderate

10 FOREWORD,

merit, but dollars could not buy a single line. This is the first effort to put into one volume the best things spoken or written by the men of Kentucky. If it shall incite new love for the Commonwealth, awaken higher purpose or nobler ambition in the hearts of her sons, or add one single jewel to the crown of her manhood or womanhood, or create a profounder devotion for her people and their history, or arouse a deeper and truer pride in the achievements of her offspring, no sacrifice or labor bestowed upon the work will ever cause a single regret.

Those who have been associated with me in this work have been generous and helpful, but upon Mr. Ben LaBree the chief labor has fallen. We all love Kentucky with a love that can glow in a Kentucky heart only; and it has been our dearest hope that these thoughts of the living and the dead will make those who follow better and nobler Kentuckians and more patriotic Americans.

The Romans of old placed in the familiar places about their, homes the busts of those who had performed the greatest services to the republic, seeking to familiarize the young with the features and achievements of their national heroes. Those who have made this book seek through the eloquent, beautiful and well-chosen words of dead or living sons of Kentucky to give the grandest impulse and sublimest quickenings for the duties, responsibilities and obligations of those who may hereafter guide, govern and control the destinies of our beloved Commonwealth.

Editor-in-Chief.

Louisville, Ky., December 15, 1906.